Garo Hills has plunged into anarchy. Shape of administration can be gauged well by the fact that an entire police station was blocked from all sides by a mob for hours. Policemen had to take cover inside. They could not help but watching three vehicles being burnt at their doorstep under impact of petrol bombs. No reinforcement could come until four hours as the ‘protesters’ blocked all routes to the Chokpot police station in South Garo Hills.

The question now being asked by police, although not openly, is that who were these people. Definitely, there were angered by the two custodial deaths within eight days in the region, the last being at Chokpot police station lock-up on May 27. The ‘mob’ in the militancy-infested appears to be well prepared for a large-scale attack as they blocked the routes to the town with logs and stones. Another question being asked is that where did they get the petrol bombs, if they had come there just to protest the custodial death as claimed by local sources. Exploring into such angles of the attack is part of the routine investigation. But what police should introspect at this hour is that can they afford to be so unprepared to be held hostage for hours inside their own police station. They should keep in mind that they are in Garo Hills where there is no sign of insurgency graph going down anytime soon.

It’s an intelligence failure too if there was any plan, as it seems so, behind the attack on the police station. The police station being located at a remote town and the deceased being allegedly involved in planting IEDs on behalf of GNLA, it would not have been an out of the box thinking to apprehend such an attack. However, cops at the police station must be credited for exercising restraint. The issue could have snowballed into a much bigger one had police tried to overpower the mob by shooting and causing human casualty.

The violation of basic human rights is too obvious in the two cases of custodial deaths, the first one being at Tura, the virtual capital of Garo Hills region, on May 20. Meghalaya police have to fight this reality without trying to save its skin. Let the guilty, whatever high officials they are or any others, be punished. All that have been seen till this hour is that there is an attempt to put the blame on doctors. Police already indicated that the medical officer of Chokpot arrived 12 hours after being informed about Winston M Sangma lying unconscious inside the lock-up. Did police try to attend to the sick person or he still lied on the floor of the lock-up? Did police make any attempt to go in search of the doctor instead of waiting for him till the next day? The inquiry must answer these questions.

Meghalaya is staring at some turn of events on June 2. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) hearing that day is likely to decide the fate of ‘illegal’ rat-hole coal mining in the state. The day might tell us whether the biggest revenue earning sector can limp back, after theNGT ban brought it to a standstill last month. Mountains of coal dug from the rat holes spread across the coal-rich region are the testimony of sudden logjam to the flourishing, albeit damaging to environment, trade. The June-2 hearing inShillong might pave the way for their disposal while spelling strict dos and don’ts in the mining exercise. If the logjam continues, there is a possibility of intensive agitations although some miners have ruled out the chance. They expressed utmost respect to Indian judicial system saying it’s a matter of court and not state government.

Lack of safety for labourers and environment hazard are the two real stumbling blocks for coal trade in Meghalaya. The multiple and thin layers of coal running up to 500 feet below the ground are typical to Meghalaya’s topography where open cast mining, popularly understood as scientific mining, is not feasible and would be much more destructive. In such a scenario, rat-hole mining is the only option if coal has to be mined at all. The Coal India Ltd once made a failed attempt on “scientific” mining along Simsang river in Garo Hills. The layers of coal in Meghalaya being so thin making it impossible for any person to stand inside the holes, proper underground mining is not feasible let alone open cast mining. The need of the hour is to address the environment concern, which is being dealt by the NGT, besides the safety aspect.

Mining of the black diamond is not banned in the rest of the country. It is not that coal mining elsewhere is risk free and has not caused environmental damage. Margherita in neighbouring Assam where mining started late 19th century, decades ahead of Meghalaya, once produced 30 per cent of the country’s total output and now accounts for only 0.37 per cent. Mining in the upper Assam district of Tinsukia has eaten up hills after hills, definitely affecting environment but never faced a situation like Meghalaya is facing at this hour. The state should not be deprived of earning its royalty from the mineral. Livelihood of the people should not be undermined. There can be different mechanism to ensure minimum impact on the environment. Police and administration have to play a major role in implementing all guidelines, if NGT spells them out while lifting the ban.

The North-east, as a whole, did not give any decisive mandate in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but not remained untouched by the so-called Modi Wave either. Besides winning seven out of the 14 seats in Assam, the party won a seat in Arunachal Pradesh and had allies winning three others. Going by his third consecutive term as chief minister, Naga People’s Front (NPF) chief Neiphiu Rio winning the state’s lone Lok Sabha seat is no wonder. But NPF making inroads into the Outer Manipur constituency is something may not have been possible without the strength of BJP working behind him. Although the NPF had the advantage of a substantial Naga population in the constituency of Manipur, the party surely rode on the strong anti-incumbency wave against the UPA government, thanks to Rahul Gandhi’s pathetic leadership. In Arunachal Pradesh, however, the BJP’s victory was powered by Kiren Rijiju’s strong image having represented the party in the parliament earlier too.

The saffron party has inherent reasons for not being able to penetrate the hill states where Christians are in majority. But the 16th Lok Sabha election results can be viewed as a major shift in the voting pattern. The Christian majority tribals too opted for the BJP. In Shillong parliamentary constituency, the BJP candidate Shibun Lyngdoh polled maximum votes in four of the seven assembly constituencies in the capital besides winning one in his home district of East Jaintia Hills. Although Shillong being a cosmopolitan city it was easier for the Modi Wave to catch people’s mind, there are definite signs of even indigenous tribals going the BJP way ignoring its saffron tag. Both the Congress and the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) could not help but express shock over the BJP’s stunning performance. Both the rival parties expressed ‘worries’ at the trend, obviously trying to woo the Christian majority voters. But this style of campaigning against BJP would not work anymore, if the Modi-led government did not let the country down as had done by the last two terms of UPA led by a “spineless” Prime Minister.

The plight of Congress in Assam is such that the party could win only three seats, all dominated by either tribal or minority voters, meaning it was BJP and not Congress who secured most of the “secular votes”. This new trend has given the BJP a strong hope to bring in its first “genuine” government in the North-east when Assam goes to polls in 2016. The hope is strengthened by the total elimination of regional forces like the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). The first time the saffron party had ruled any NE state, albeit for a few months, was when the then Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang merged his MLAs with the BJP in 2003, only to return to Congress after NDA lost power in 2004. The party’s future in the North-east depends a lot on as to how the majority Christians of the hills states view it in the coming five years.

Of the 11 Congress chief ministers in the country, two are facing severe rebellion – not because of the drubbing of the party in their states but because of their “style of functioning”. The two north-eastern chief ministers – Tarun Gogoi of Assam and Mukul Sangma of Meghalaya – have been facing the heat from rebels within the party. Election results have only added fire to the fuel. The rebels are trying to take advantage of the party’s humiliating defeat to seek a leadership change. The party’s performance in the two states and for that matter in the entire North-east is comparatively better than their counterparts in rest of India. The Congress being reduced to three seats from its 2009 tally of seven in Assam is no match with the party’s rout in Haryana. Bhupinder Singh Huda’s chair does not seem to be shaking despite the party managing to win just one seat out of 10, plunging deep from its figure of nine. Mukul Sangma is in a much better position compared to Gogoi. The party retained its traditional stronghold of Shillong while losing Tura seat once again to the Garo Hills veteran Purno A Sangma. The former Lok Sabha Speaker, however, managed a thin margin over the Congress’s Daryl Momin, 28, compared to his past records.

Looking at the party’s worst ever performance – 44 seats in the Lok Sabha – at a time when BJP bagged 71 in Uttar Pradesh alone, the five chief ministers of the party in the North-east need not share much of the blame. Nabam Tuki although lost one of the two seats to BJP in Arunachal Pradesh, he ensured that Congress retained the power seat in the state assembly with a thumping majority. Three-time Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, however, faced an embarrassment by having to lose one of the two seats to Naga People’s Front (NPF), an NDA ally. Yet, it can no way be compared to the party’s debacle in Maharashtra where the Ashok Chavan-led Congress government could manage just two seats out of 48, reduced from its 2009 tally of nine.

Thus the rumblings in the Congress in Assam and Meghalaya are not likely to result in any leadership change at the behest of the high command (if it can still be termed so). The more the differences get open in the party, the more the BJP is going to gain grounds by catching the popular mood that Congress is a spent force in the country now.

The historic defeat of the Congress will mean a lot for the political scenario of the North-east. The party, for the first time, has lost its top position in terms of the Lok Sabha seats in the region. The country’s oldest party managed just seven of the 25 seats of eight north-eastern states. The BJP, riding on the Modi wave, shot up its 2009 tally of four to a commendable seven despite absence of any strong state-level leadership. One of the two seats in Arunachal Pradesh also went to the party while its ally Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) won two seats – one in Manipur and the lone seat of Nagaland. In Meghalaya, the party made a right move by roping in Purno Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP). The veteran leader was given his ninth Lok Sabha term by the electorate of Garo Hills. Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) that won the lone seat of the state is a fence sitter and likely to toe the line of the party at the Centre.

Thus the BJP having its direct and indirect presence in five of the eight states of the region is going to strongly influence the political scenario of North-east. Political instability that even resulted in overnight change of government is not unfamiliar to the region. Congress legislators of Arunachal Pradesh had jumped into the BJP bandwagon when the saffron party ruled at the Centre under Atal Behari Vajpayee’s leadership. Meghalaya is notorious for its political crisis having seen over 26 chief ministers and two stints of President’s Rule in its 42 years of statehood.

None of the states in the North-east has ever been ruled by the BJP except for Arunachal Pradesh for a brief period. However, the notion that the party does not have grassroots support in NE states other than Assam was proved wrong by the BJP candidate for Shillong constituency. While the winner Congress’s sitting MP, Vincent H Pala, secured a little over two lakh votes, BJP’s Shibun Lyngdoh managed nearly one lakh, till counting reached its last phase. Modi being an assertive person will definitely push hard to strengthen the party’s base in the hill states besides luring the politicians. Political drama might unfold in the coming months in some states of the North-east.

When media reported about women activists busting a ‘prostitution’ racket on May 1, nobody had in the wildest dream thought that the vigilantes would land up in Tura jail a week later. The events unfolded so fast that at least three separate probes have been launched by different government agencies in the past four days so far. Would it be so had it been a simple case of moral policing? Are the jailed women activists solely responsible for brutal assault on the 12 girls? There is definitely more that what meets the eye in the whole episode revolving around prostitution.

The scene was hazy since the first report was published in the media. There was no mention of police role in the report about ‘capture’ of five girls from Chasingre on the night of May 1. The women NGOs, who now claim that the girls were handed over to them by police, were quoted by the media then and none mentioned about police. The women activists also picked up girls from their own homes in Tura. Parents did not lodge any missing complaints, meaning they were aware of the girls’ whereabouts. This aspect makes the case against the women activists weak since they would not be foolish to brutally torture the girls. In fact, activist Jaynie Sangma’s house where the girls were kept for over a week for ‘counselling’ had a good footfall from official teams to the victims’ parents. Nobody had any qualms. Teams of District Child Protection Unit and Meghalaya State Women Commission visited the house separately on May 8. They returned, peacefully. A few hours later, some ‘villagers’ ‘rescued’ the girls from the house and handed over to police. The first FIR was filed in the incident was by Jaynie Sangma about assault on her by the mob. It seems, police discovered lately that the girls were tortured and arrested Jaynie and four other activists the next day. There is a dubious version about the FIR. Initial reports said police filed a suo moto case, but later the district police chief said relative of a victim filed an FIR and the activists were arrested accordingly. The police website mentions Jaynie’s FIR, but not the other claimed by the official.

Amid these claims and counter claims, here comes the reference of a diary allegedly found from the girls. The diary allegedly contains names of influential people including politicians. What is more interesting is that militant groups too have jumped the bandwagon while taking different sides – some criticised women groups while others backed them slamming police and another militant group. It is utterly confusing at this moment to pinpoint as to who tortured the girls and what was the motive, if there was one at all. This question must be answered within one month, the deadline fixed for each of the three probes.

Government employees in Meghalaya saved crores of rupees by turning up on the first day of the four-day ‘total shutdown’ called by the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC). On the second day, anyone hardly remembered there was any ‘shutdown’ on that day too besides two more days after the weekly holidays. The people have shown that they are mightier than any militant outfit and even the government. This message will pass across many quarters. Although a ‘spent force’, HNLC is still the most influential militant outfit of Khasi-Jaintia region. The outfit still draws sympathy even from political parties besides the NGOs ‘concerned’ about rights of indigenous people. The reason for calling the four-day bandh – arrest of an NGO leader and four others for nexus with the outfit – shows how close their relations are. No NGO or political party made any statement against the bandh. But after the utter failure of the ‘total shutdown’ of state and central government offices, the HNLC and for that matter any organisation will think twice before calling a bandh.

The ‘shutdown’ call was a lucrative offer for government employees to enjoy a six-day holiday package. They have enjoyed numerous such bandhs in the past without really knowing for what the bandh was called. It has been a cheap practice by most organisations to call bandh on days preceding weekly holidays so that government employees, especially those staying away from home, take advantage of the situation and go on long holidays. Shillong-Guwahati tourist taxi fares go up on Thursday evening every time a bandh is called on Friday because Central government employees hailing from Assam make hurry to rush home on three-day holiday. Ironically, Central offices where there are substantial numbers of employees from outside are more ‘faithful’ to the local organizations whoever calls a bandh. There were times when Central offices were found locked when state government offices recorded good attendance.

Thursday’s scene was different because the state government issued special instructions to each Central government office not to pay heed to the shutdown call. Also, for many, the four-day shutdown call was too much for release of a not-so-popular NGO leader and four others who were held for nexus with an outlawed organization. The government deserves complement for making the employees attend their offices and work for what they are paid from the public exchequer. It is also a message to the public to feel the need for showing its might to anyone who take them for granted time and again.

For years, Meghalaya could not decide who – cement plants or coal mines – is responsible for pollution in the rivers of Jaintia Hills region. Many rivers are considered ‘dead’ now because of no use of the water. People are so scared of consuming water in the region that even the poorest man opts for bottled water. There will be very few districts in the country where sale of bottled water is so high. And why not, the rivers look deadly yellow. Hectares of paddy fields turned yellow and dead forever as polluted water flow over there.

Jaintia Hills is rich both in limestone and coal. Cement plants have mushroomed while coal fields are getting exhausted one after another very fast. Some predict that at this rate of mining the coal will last just another 40-50 years. There has been an eternal blame game between the two industries when it comes to causing pollution to water and soil in the two districts of the region.

Most of the voices especially coming from non-government organisations including so-called student bodies back the coal mining and blame cement plants for pollution. The huge support for coal mining has an obvious reason – owners of coal mines that run into thousands are mostly indigenous people. On the other hand, there are only around 10 cement plants mostly owned by companies run by outsiders. Employment generation in coal mining sector is huge compared to cement plants.

But, facts are facts. Rivers are ‘dead’ and nothing grows in areas near coal dumping grounds which are tens of miles away from any cement plant or limestone mining. Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB) also submitted a report stating that coal mining is behind pollution caused to Lukha river. The river, since past seven years, turns blue and hundreds of fish die in February every year. In another blow to the locals, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently banned rat-hole coal mining. NGT observation that coal mining turned water of Kopili river acidic has a few takers in Jaintia Hills. They want to push the blame to the cement industries, who are small in number yet enjoy tremendous support from politicians and bureaucrats. Repeated allegations by environmentalists that limestone mining destroyed several cave systems, one of the densest in the world, have failed to put them under scanner.

Amid this blame game, the Mother Earth is bearing the brunt. Most affected are the people’s basic need for water and cultivable soil. Many farmers had resorted to petty jobs in coal sector which showed them easy money. Others joined the bandwagon later when they had no option left after their paddy fields turned arid, thanks to coal mining. If coal is to last for another 50 years, as some say, is it not the right time to think of an alternative?

Blind activist Bertha G Dkhar could have easily got a government job on government quota. She would have been doing insignificant work or no work at all and yet paid by the government. That’s how physically challenged are ‘helped’ by the government everywhere. However, Bertha chose not be one among those and chose a path of struggle. She worked as a principal of a school for the disabled run by the Bethany Society of Shillong for over a decade. Her last salary drawn was Rs 8,000! But she has no qualms about it. She only regrets that the government failed to help her to help others, especially the disabled children. The government thinks by allotting a work of printing Braille books it has done a favour to the Society. The government allots Rs 150 to bear the cost of books for every primary school student covered under the Sarva Siksha Abhijan. The amount does not consider the multiple times cost of Braille books. There should be some head thinking about this simple fact and consider raising the cost of books for the disabled children.

The famous double amputee athlete Oscar Pistorious would never have scaled such height had the South African government’s support to him was limited to offering him a job only. No person in this world can rise to fame without support from others – family, government, public, organizations etc. It is more true for the physically challenged people, especially the blind. They need support in every step. The government should not think its responsibility ends in providing them with job quota and loans, but also to see how to utilise them to help others. By empowering them in their work, hundreds of other disabled people can be inspired to make a mark in this world, which otherwise looks impossible for them.

A better world for the disabled is possible if the government makes sincere attempt to free organizations like Bethany Society from financial burden. Such organisations can do wonder because they have the required expertise, experience, environment and over and above a true intent, which may not be with the concerned government department.

The people often blame the government for wrongs they commit. The classic example is clogging of the drains. It’s the people who throw their garbage in the drains or in the open causing the blockage which is one of the prime reasons for flash floods. Though the government authorities are responsible for cleaning up the drains, the public is no less responsible in keeping them free of blockage. The government is for the public and not otherwise. But, unfortunately, passing the buck has been the last resort for anyone who is responsible for something that went wrong. The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) is currently in the eye of the storm, for pushing parts of the state into darkness for as long as 11 hours. Situation in capital Shillong is slightly better – there is 9-hour load shedding! This is unprecedented in a state which was power surplus till a few years ago.

Let alone the people, chief minister Mukul Sangma also went hammer and tongue against the MeECL for the ‘mess’. He was so furious on MeECL that he said the corporation cannot always be the government’s baby. What he said was right. Everyone accepted and praised him for being so blunt about MeECL, a government undertaking. However, a deeper look into the development would reveal that the chief minister was doing nothing but giving some extra lashes to the whipping boy (MeECL). This is the easiest task to do at this moment since the MeECL’s fault is there for everyone to see. The Rs 1300 crore it spent on the Myntdu Leshka hydro-electric project of 126 MW has almost gone into the water. The plant is producing a meagre 6 MW at this hour of crisis. However, nothing much could be expected from a run-of-the-river project during this period especially when there is less than average rainfall.

Blaming the MeECL for the entire crisis is unbecoming for the chief minister. As the head of the government, he bears some responsibility too to take care of the MeECL affairs although it is an independent body with less government control. Was he not aware of the fact that the North East Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) had warned the MeECL of the impending power crisis two years ago? If he wasn’t, what action has he taken to pull up the MeECL authorities responsible for hushing up the matter? Such ‘blunt” statement by the chief minister might give him some positive media publicity and help win the hearts of a few voters, but nothing is going to change in the ground. People will continue to suffer from the prolonged darkness unless urgent steps are taken to ease the power crisis. At the same time, the government should take prompt steps to reduce power wastage and make long-term plans for sustainable power generation.